The David.
The David, as we all know him. The one with furrowed brows and a thoughtful gaze. The one with a stone clutched in one hand and a sling in the other, captured just before slaying the giant Goliath.
There is not just one in Florence. There are indeed three. One, the authentic masterpiece by Michelangelo, is housed in the Accademia Gallery.
Two famous copies: one in Piazza della Signoria, the other at Piazzale Michelangelo.
Then there are the illustrious predecessors of Michelangelo’s David.
By Donatello and Verrocchio, at the Bargello.
All these Davids span a long period of time.
The hero is always the same, the young boy who, in the Bible, in the book of Saul, defeats the giant Goliath and frees the people of Israel.
But each artist has imagined him in their own way. Who knows why? Who knows if retracing the history of David and the Davids cannot help us understand the transition between two very different epochs in the history and art of Florence? And, as usual, by delving into the hidden meanings behind these works, we will discover something that still speaks of us and belongs to us today.
To Learn More…
The visit focuses on the biblical story of David and how it has been depicted by different artists in different eras. We will start at the Bargello Museum, where three Davids are in comparison. A youthful one by Donatello, Brunelleschi’s favorite companion with whom he conversed intimately. This David evokes some tenderness: you can recognize an immature Donatello, still a bit awkward in representing the young boy, triumphant on Goliath’s head, in a pose that is too artificial to be natural. He was young; it would take him a few more years to reach maturity, as revealed in the bronze David from the 1430s and 1440s. A mysteriously enigmatic David, indeed. I will point out his seraphic, winking, satisfied expression for having completed the task he decided to undertake. The face is relaxed, as is his musculature, still immature. David triumphs on Goliath’s head, whom he has just beheaded, using his weapon. On Goliath’s forehead, you can see the stone with which David stunned him before decapitating him. David wears a hat on his head. A hat with a hole in the middle. Who knows, someone has speculated, perhaps feathers were inserted into the hole on the hat, a sign of triumph. Perhaps celebrating the triumph over the enemy was precisely the reason why the David was commissioned by Cosimo the Elder of the Medici, who had returned victoriously to the city after an exile.
Equally serene, smiling, and enigmatic is Verrocchio’s David, an artist who, according to his biographer, was defined as “hard mannered,” but who has recently been rediscovered as a great master, technically very skilled, and, above all, capable of imparting his expertise to his students, including Leonardo da Vinci, with boundless generosity.
It too, perhaps, was commissioned to celebrate a triumph: the triumph, in this case, of Piero dei Medici, son of Cosimo the Elder and father of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who managed to thwart a conspiracy.
Two triumphant Davids, then, who have achieved what they set out to do, with the support of their faith in God.
Completely different is Michelangelo’s David, whom I will show you at the Accademia Gallery, where we will head after crossing the veranda and the suggestive courtyard of the Bargello Museum.
Michelangelo’s David is certainly not a youthful, let alone triumphant, seraphic, or winking David.
Michelangelo’s David is an adult man, well-formed, with a well-defined bodily structure. He is tormented. He is reflecting. He has not yet thrown the stone. He is skilled with the sling, yes, but who knows if he will succeed this time. His faith supports him, but it is faith in a God who cannot be seen, touched, or spoken to. It is faith and nothing else. King Saul, after all, had tried to dissuade him from the enterprise, but he had not wanted to hear. And if the king had been right? He and his people would have died. If, on the other hand, he had succeeded in his intent, he would have killed a man. Would his God have forgiven him?
Michelangelo shows us David in the midst of this inner turmoil, which, when you think about it, is what each of us faces several times in life. The moment of choice is always difficult. By choosing, something is gained, but something else is lost. Mistakes can be made. But they can only be made when one is free. And Michelangelo’s David is a free man who chooses. For this reason, in 1504, when the David was completed, it was decided not to place it, as planned, on top of the Cathedral, but to place it in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, which had become the Palace of the Republic. The Medicis had been expelled from Florence, and a Republic had been instituted in the city, so in those years, a free regime prevailed, where one could choose, for oneself and for others, for the people, as in the case of the leaders of the Florentine Republic.
And what better image than that of the tormented David could better express the power and torment of this freedom?
In the Accademia Gallery, we will also have the opportunity to observe Michelangelo’s other works on display: the Prisoners, the Pietà from Palestrina, and Saint Matthew.
